Former Vice President Joe Biden could give President Donald Trump a run for his money if he joins the race for president in 2020, but a recent POLITICO and Morning Consult poll on Wednesday shows that members of his own party could be the ones holding him back from a win.
Biden had a seven percent lead on Trump, with 44 percent of registered voters saying they’d choose the former vice president over the current president, who received 37 percent of votes, in the 2020 presidential election.
Although 80 percent of Democrats said they would vote Biden and 78 percent of Republicans said they’d vote Trump, there is an imbalance of polling numbers within the Democratic Party that indicates Biden would not have the full support of his party in his third run for president. (RELATED: Trump: ‘I Dream’ About Running Against Joe Biden)
In a Trump-Biden race, a generic Democratic candidate would garner nine percent more votes than Biden, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,993 registered voters from July 26 to July 30.
“Notably, 89 percent of Democrats say they would vote for a generic Democrat over Trump, but only 80 percent of Democrats say they prefer Biden over Trump,” said Morning Consult Managing Director Tyler Sinclair to Politico.
Although Biden has neither confirmed nor denied tossing his hat into the ring in 2020, several other Democratic prospects, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have all been rallying around the country before the midterms to boost their profiles and up their chances of becoming the party’s presidential nominee.
Democrats have been divided on the future of their party, with potential presidential nominees ranging from Democratic socialists to moderates. Warren’s push to unify the party makes her a more popular pick than Sanders, whose clear socialist leanings may render him unable to overtake Trump in the elections, according to reports by The New York Times.
Biden’s campaign message could entail calls for bipartisanship and moving beyond Trump’s rhetoric as he simultaneously taps in to a younger base of voters for support. Still, without the unified support of his party, his position as a front-runner if he does decide to join the race remains uncertain.
“The opportunity for somebody to emerge and catch a wave hasn’t been this high since 1976,” Anita Dunn, a veteran Democratic strategist, told The New York Times in acknowledgement of the changing identity of her party and the effect it can have on the upcoming presidential elections.
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